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Cupisnique Culture Sacred Animals
This piece shows a feline, owl, serpents, and condor. The owl and condor represented the sky while the feline represented the earth and dominance. The serpent represented the subterranean world. Housed in the Museo Larco, Lima, Peru.

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Cupisnique Anthropomorphic Feline
From the Formative Epoch (c. 1250 BCE - c. 1 CE). On Earth, the supreme leaders of this society assumed the power of the feline. The great religious, political, and economic power they accumulated enabled the development of more efficient...

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Sculptural Viru Pitcher
From the Formative Epoch (1250 BCE - 1 CE). Represents a figure with the body of a feline, head of an owl, and a serpent-like tail. These animals all had sacred and symbolic meaning in many ancient Peruvian cultures. At the Museo Larco, Lima...

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Wari Vessel
This Wari (Huari) vessel from the Apogee Epoch (c. 1 CE - 800 CE) combines sculpture with color and has motifs outlined in black. Housed at Museo Larco, Lima, Peru.

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Signposts at the Tucume Museum
Signposting at the Tucume Museum, Peru. This photo was taken by Hilary Bradt and used with permission. Date unknown.

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Paracas Mantel
Mantel (Detail), 100 BCE / 200 CE. Paracas; south coast, Peru. The Art Institute of Chicago, Emily Crane Chadbourne Fund.

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Nazca Line Spider
A geoglyph showing the Nazca Line Spider. The designs and lines created on the desert floor of southern Peru are known collectively as the 'Nazca Lines' and were made over several centuries between 200 BCE and 500 CE. Their exact purpose...

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Spanish Galleon
The Spanish galleon (Spanish: galeón, nao, or navío) was a particularly large type of galleon used for both carrying cargo and as a warship armed with up to 60 cannons. Used from the mid-16th century until the early 19th century, Spanish...

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Bartolomé de Las Casas
Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1566) was a Spanish Dominican friar and former conquistador who revealed the atrocities of the conquests of New Spain and Peru and who strove to protect the basic rights of indigenous peoples in the Spanish Empire...

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Moche Civilization
The Moche civilization (also known as the Mochica) flourished along the northern coast and valleys of ancient Peru, in particular, in the Chicama and Trujillo Valleys, between 1 CE and 800 CE. The Moche state spread to eventually cover an...